


Peas in a Pod, Thick as Thieves

by Calacious



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Genre: Acceptance, Family Feels, Love, Multi, Yuletide 2019, outside pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21844822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calacious/pseuds/Calacious
Summary: Anne's not sure how welcome those in Avonlea will be of the home she, Gilbert and Diana are making together. Marilla and Rachel show her that love is more important than what others might think.
Relationships: Anne Shirley/Gilbert Blythe/Diana Barry
Comments: 20
Kudos: 42
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Peas in a Pod, Thick as Thieves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facingthenorthwind (spacegandalf)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacegandalf/gifts).



> Dear spacegandalf, I hope you like this. I attempted to incorporate Avonlea reactions to Diana, Anne and Gilbert being together, and a touch of non-binary Anne (it's more of a nod than anything else). 
> 
> Happy Holidays!

“Those three are snug as peas in a pod,” Mrs. Rachel Lynde commented to Marilla, sotto voice. She was working on a quilt for the three aforementioned peas, and Marilla was keeping her company, knitting.

She smiled and waved at the trio -- two dark haired, one auburn -- as they passed by her front porch. They appeared to be deep in conversation about something, but they often appeared to be that way so Mrs. Rachel was hard pressed to learn anything of import from their serious demeanor. They barely raised their heads in greeting, and it was hard for Mrs. Rachel to catch anything that they said as they ambled past the porch.

“Thick as thieves, more like it,” Mrs. Rachel muttered, mostly to herself, eyes narrowing as she watched the three who were up to who knew what.

Marilla snorted. “Leave them be,” she said. “They’ve been together ever since Anne saw fit to forgive the Blythe boy for his insults.”

“That girl with her fiery hair to match her temper,” Mrs. Rachel tsked. 

“And her imagination,” Marilla added fondly. “I remember, during her ‘dark days’ when she was in the depths of despair, as she often was, and she refused to go to school. She’d lamented something fierce about losing her beloved Diana one day to marriage.” Marilla chuckled at the memory.

“That girl,” said Mrs. Rachel, there was no acrimony in her voice. “If she wasn’t in the depths of despair and lamenting over something, she was gushing about this and that. That Anne of yours can talk an ear off.”

Marilla didn’t comment on Mrs. Rachel’s ability to do the same. She focused on her knitting and wisely kept her thoughts on the matter to herself. 

“What do you suppose those three are up to now?” Mrs. Rachel asked.

Knowing that an answer wasn’t expected from her, Marilla held her tongue. Mrs. Rachel would, as was often the case, supply her own answer. Marilla knew what the three were up to as Anne had told her earlier that day. 

“They’re probably up to no good, I’d reckon,” Mrs. Rachel said, making an especially vicious jab in the quilt square with her needle and wincing when the needle pricked her finger. She plopped her injured finger into her mouth and sucked on it until the pain and blood subsided.

“They have gotten into a number of scrapes over the years, haven’t they?” Marilla didn’t expect an answer, though that didn’t stop Mrs. Rachel from giving her one.

“That they have. Wonder what they’ll get up to next, now that they’re back in Avonlea,” Mrs. Rachel said. 

“Anne’s got her heart set on teaching, Diana’s apprenticing to become a seamstress, and the Blythe boy (Marilla can’t quite get herself to think of him as Gilbert) is hoping to set up his practice here,” Marilla said. 

“In Avonlea?” Mrs. Rachel asked.

“In Avonlea,” Marilla confirmed. 

“Well, I’ll be...”

It wasn’t often that Mrs. Rachel was left without words, though it happened much more often when Marilla’s Anne was thrown into the mix. It shouldn’t give Marilla such a thrill, but it did.

“The three of them?” Mrs. Rachel couldn’t quite bring herself to ask the question that was really on her mind.

“They’re settling into a cabin just off the Barry’s pond,” Marilla said, heart swelling with pride in spite of herself. 

She’d offered them Green Gables, but Anne had said they’d wanted to make a place of their own, somewhere off the beaten path. Marilla could only hope that Diana would take up the cooking for their household as Anne was still prone to daydreaming, and stopped midway through what she was doing to entertain her imagination. It was a wonder the girl had made it through her schooling, Marilla thought, though her Anne had matured considerably since she’d first come to Avonlea, and Marilla was proud of her achievements, not that she’d ever tell Anne that. It wouldn’t due to feed into Anne’s ego.

“Ain’t that something?” Mrs. Rachel mused. “It seems like just yesterday that Anne was declaring that she hated me, and calling me a... what was it she’d said? A ‘rude, impolite, unfeeling woman’? And that I ‘hadn’t a spark of imagination’ in me?”

Marilla’s lips twitched, but she said nothing. She well remembered that day, and the ensuing battle she’d undertaken to get Anne to apologize to Mrs. Rachel in spite of the fact that Mrs. Rachel had been rude and impolite in what she’d said to the young girl who was already self-conscious about her looks.

“Anne did have quite the temper,” Marilla said. 

“I daresay that she still has,” Mrs. Rachel twittered. “No doubt Diana and Gilbert will have their work cut out for them in keeping Anne on an even keel.”

Said girl could be seen racing back toward them, hair flying out behind her as she ran, hand holding her hat in place, feet kicking up dust. Diana and Gilbert stood a good distance off, shaking their heads and sharing a look that was indecipherable, but decidedly loving and indulgent. Diana said something, and Gilbert bent his head to listen, and then threw his head back and laughed and tugged Diana closer to his side. 

Marilla and Mrs. Rachel Lynde took in all of this from where they sat on the porch, awaiting Anne’s arrival. For her part, Mrs. Rachel continued her stitching, pretending not to be watching and waiting. Marilla gave no such illusion of attending to anything other than her Anne.

Soon enough Anne stood before them, hands on her knees, panting to beat the band, and Marilla had a sudden flash of a much younger Anne -- skinny legs, knobby knees, braided, unkempt hair and a smudge of dirt on her nose -- and she missed her fiercely. The moment passed and Marilla blinked to clear the superimposed vision, seeing the grown version of her girl, the one she’d almost foolishly given up. Anne had been the most Providential mistake, an accident of Fate (something Anne would no doubt say), and Marilla was glad that she’d not sent Anne back to the asylum, or off to Mrs. Blewett. She would not trade her Anne for any boy. 

“What the Devil has gotten into you?” Mrs. Rachel asked, half standing as Anne continued to gasp for air, and grasped at a stitch in her side.

Anne waved her off, and Mrs. Rachel sat back down. Marilla knew better than to rush her girl, and waited her out. Anne never could be rushed. Her stubbornness prevented it. 

“We...” Anne waved vaguely in the direction of Gilbert and Diana. “Wanted to invite you...” Anne heaved in a breath. “To our house-warming two weeks from Saturday. That is...” Anne attempted to compose herself and stood to her full height. Her flushed cheeks made her freckles stand out all the more. 

“If you’re free, Mrs. Rachel Lynde and Marilla, Diana, Gilbert and I would like to invite you to our humble abode in two week’s time to partake of house-warming activities.”

“Oh dear, child, after all this time, I think you should call me Rachel,” Mrs. Rachel said. “After all, you’re like a niece to me.”

Anne’s flushed skin grew even redder as she blushed. Her smile was radiant, and she nodded, and then bowed with a flourish. Marilla hid a chuckle behind her hand. She was still not immune to Anne’s antics. Her girl could still surprise her and make her laugh.

“Dearest Aunt Rachel and my dearest Marilla, are you free to join my bosom friends and I in our new home two weeks from Saturday?” Anne asked, gracing them with another bow, taking her hat off as a young gentleman would do. 

“I daresay that we are,” Mrs. Rachel said, giving Marilla a look that said she’d better not have anything else going on that day. 

“We’ll be there, Anne,” Marilla said. “You can count on us.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Anne gushed, clasping her hands together underneath her chin. “We’ll see you two Saturdays hence at a quarter of four.”

“Tea time?” Mrs. Rachel asked.

Anne nodded. “If that’s alright.”

“It’s perfect, now off with you girl before your bosom friends think better of waiting for you and head off without you,” Marilla said, keeping her voice mock stern.

Instead of doing the sensible thing and listening to Marilla, Anne leapt onto the porch and embraced, first Mrs. Rachel, and then Marilla, in an overly enthusiastic hug, kissing each of them on the cheek in turn. She was beaming, and there were tears in her eyes. Marilla felt a little off kilter, though she’d grown used to Anne’s emotional outbursts over the years. A look at Mrs. Rachel confirmed that the other woman was likewise overcome by the emotion that shone from Anne’s eyes.

“You can’t know what this means to us,” Anne said, clasping their hands together and kissing them as well. 

She blinked quickly, but a tear escaped, and Marilla, not thinking at all, brushed it away with her thumb and pulled Anne into a hug until the girl, now a young woman, calmed and relaxed into the embrace. It seemed that no matter how old her Anne was, she was still in need of Marilla’s love, and that thought made Marilla feel fiercely protective of her. 

“Oh, Anne,” Marilla whispered into the girl’s ear. “You’ve got it wrong, your invitation means the world to us, not the other way around. I love you, and I think it’s safe to say that Rachel Lynde loves you too.”

“I know,” Anne said, sniffing. “It’s just...I didn’t know how you’d feel about me making a home with Diana and Gil.”

“Anne, it matters not to me who you make your home with,” Marilla said, voice firm, giving Anne no room to disagree with her. She held Anne out at arm’s length and looked her in the eye. “I am proud of the woman you’ve become and I will love you, no matter what you do and who you love.”

“Even if I don’t follow the traditions of conventional society?” Anne asked in a trembling voice. 

Marilla laughed and pulled Anne into another hug before releasing her. “Anne, you’ve never followed the traditions of conventional society, why start now?”

“You really don’t mind?” Anne asked, eyes filled with wonder and hope.

Shaking her head, Marilla offered Anne a smile. “I don’t.”

“And, for whatever it’s worth,” Mrs. Rachel said, clearing her throat. “I don’t mind either. If anyone in Avonlea tries to say anything about it, I will tell them what for.”

Mrs. Rachel would do just that. No one would entertain a notion that Mrs. Rachel would not let them. There was no greater gossip in Avonlea, and she would lead the support for Anne, Diana and Gilbert, no doubt about it.

“Thank you,” Anne said, lips trembling.

“Off with you, Anne-girl,” Marilla said, gesturing toward the road where Diana and Gilbert were waiting for Anne. They’d followed after Anne, though they kept their distance as though unsure of their welcome, standing back from the porch as they watched the interaction.

“Your home is waiting for you,” Marilla said. If there were tears in her eyes, no one mentioned it. Marilla refused to let any fall, regardless.

The smile Anne gave her was radiant and Marilla’s heart felt full, and more so when her Anne all but skipped off the porch and into the arms of her companions. Gilbert and Diana enveloped Anne, both dropping kisses on her cheeks, and whispering into her ear. Their heads bent together, they looked, almost as one, at Mrs. Rachel and Marilla. There was something like gratitude and relief in Gilbert’s and Diana’s eyes, and Marilla wondered, briefly, how the Barrys had responded to the news. If history served, then they hadn’t taken to it well. Marilla hoped, for Diana’s sake, that they had taken it better than she feared.

Though the cottage the three had purchased was adjacent to the Barry pond, it was not directly on Barry land. Marilla looked forward to seeing it in two weeks. In the meantime, she had knitting to do, and other gifts to make. It would not be polite to go to a house-warming empty handed. 

After waving, and calling out, “See you in two weeks!” the trio was off on their journey home, Anne’s head resting on Gilbert’s shoulder, her arm wrapped around Diana and Gilbert’s waists. Diana leaned into Anne and Gilbert’s arm was wrapped around Diana and Anne’s backs. 

“Three peas in a pod,” Mrs. Rachel said in an affectionate tone of voice. She sat down and set to work on the quilt, no doubt imagining it adorning the bed the three would share.


End file.
